Since 90% of you weren’t here at the time, I thought it would be interesting to look back at a segment originally published 3 years ago today. It was so long ago, Substack hadn’t even introduced video yet, so I linked to the YouTube version at the time. Yes, this is actually my 5th anniversary publishing on the platform . Now, this video segment resides here natively as well [side note: this will be the 2,145th post published to Indie Media Today in those 5 years].
In the face of massive tech layoffs so far in 2026 (almost 100k workers YTD), I thought this would be an appropriate topic to review.
Article covered:
Layoffs Ravage Tech: Do Tech Workers Need Unions?: James Baker, Socialist Alternative
What did we get right, what did we get wrong and what’s changed since then? We’ve seen a big effort from big tech to resist unions. Here are a few big stories from tech workers labor since, and it hasn’t been pretty on the employee side…
Alphabet laid off the team in Austin fighting for a union at YouTube Music (May 1, 2024).
Amazon Labor Union tried to go independent and folded into the Teamsters. I covered that EXTENSIVELY at this newsletter. Even though this was for the warehouse workers, Amazon is still a tech company.
Alphabet Workers’ Union has been touting their accomplishments - here are a few:
Ending Caste Discrimination at Google
Alphabet workers organize to remove toxic managers
Google Raters win first ever pay raise
For those who are unfamiliar with the history, “How Did We Miss That” is the predecessor to IndieNewsNow LIVE. I produced the show with Reef Breland most Sunday nights for 3+ years prior to November 2025, when I moved it to Tuesday nights, changed the name of the show and went solo.
Reef and I still host “Boats Smashing Into Other Boats” on Sunday nights over on IndieNews Network (INN).
Hi! I’m Indie. “Indie” is not just a person - but a persona and a project representing a fiercely independent, anti-corporate media operation. It’s the voice of a politically unaligned critic and curator who exists outside the traditional Left-Right duopoly. The mission is to seek a trustworthy alternative set of sources apart from the mainstream media (MSM) by championing and amplifying truly independent journalists and perspectives that are corporate-free.
Founder, IndieNews Network (INN)
Publisher, Indie Media Today, IndieNewsNow.com &
Producer, co-host & livestream engineer of multiple shows
Founder, the Indie Media Awards
Break free from the media focused on the duopoly and discover the news you’re not supposed to see!
